Lets talk Roots. How to accelerate growth/fill pot entirely

[TurboTokes]

Hi guys. You can skip reading this and simply post your technique to big rootballs in VEG, or carry on reading my story if you please.

Im trying to get a handle on treating coco coir like a hydroponic grow, with several feedings a day, but also with the pot drying out each time. My roots currently seem to grow slowly.

I veg under 300w of MH hid. My current run is clones into 1 gallon fabric pots, theyve been in there 2 weeks, and still take 4 days to dry out before waterring, and if i grab the stalk, the plant still doesnt feel well supported, the roots havemt spread amd taken hold.

What are some tips to fast growing rootballs? The goal is to automate feeding for both veg and bloom. But I feel if i just start feeding them daily the root wont grow at all because they d9nt have t9 search for water, am I correct? Cheers

 

[Nutty sKunK]

The fastest and most consistent way of fast rootballs personally is a good ratio of oxygen to the root system. I use Air-Pots for this.

Perhaps the slow root growth is due to too much water, therefore inhibiting oxygen to the roots?

 

[chemphlegm]

once I dialed in temps,rh,c02, air flow/quality, watering/feeding habits/ quality lighting and well draining substrate....I found there are no tricks, plants and roots knew exactly what to do. I cant believe the growth rate with giant root balls and yields I get now. I can fill a five gallon bucket with perfect twirling roots in less than 45 days, one solid root ball if I pull the plant up for transplant. I'd say dial in your environment for more success.

These plants grow to their weakest resource, not their best trick, you decide which that is, and suffer the losses or not.
nothing makes up for weak light, or high humidity, or slow drainage for instance.

hang in there, water less for starts

 

[ISK]

I grow hempy style and I find the roots become very solid regardless of what size of container used

Solo cups


2L pop bottle

 

[chemphlegm]

2 week old plant, be wanting more roots faster....meh

 

[xtsho]

I grow in 100% coco using fabric pots and blumats. When I harvest the roots have grown throughout all of the coco. Prior to flowering I hand water while in veg. You don't need to water several times a day. You want to water just until runoff and then let the coco dry out. Not completely but to where the top couple inches are dry. If it takes a couple of days then it takes a couple of days. If you let the coco dry out the roots will search for water and grow. If you keep the coco soaking wet by watering a couple times a day the roots have no need to grow.
I let my clones or seeds grow a good set of roots in 4 x 4 pots then transplant into three gallon fabric pots of 100% coco that's been presoaked but isn't dripping wet. When you squeeze a handful of coco you shouldn't have water coming out of it like a sponge. I've had roots start poking through the fabric in a couple of days.

"Im trying to get a handle on treating coco coir like a hydroponic grow,"
You want to treat coco like coco. Best results come from allowing the coco to dry out somewhat between watering's or by using a drip type system that keeps it at a constant moisture level. That's why I use blumats. The coco stays damp but not soaking wet which is what you want with coco.

 

[TurboTokes]

2 week old plant, be wanting more roots faster....meh

Yes. Precisely. Maybe that is alot to ask it seems. But in my situation I only want to veg for 20 days, not 60-90 like alot of people, so the fastest way to a gallon sized rootball in coco perlite is what im after.

Im likely changing to a hempy style fabric grow after this run. A fabric smart pot but with a small 500ml resevoir built in. Which Im slightly excited about. But roots will be critical in that setup just the same

 

[Xs121]

Yes. Precisely. Maybe that is alot to ask it seems. But in my situation I only want to veg for 20 days, not 60-90 like alot of people, so the fastest way to a gallon sized rootball in coco perlite is what im after.

Im likely changing to a hempy style fabric grow after this run. A fabric smart pot but with a small 500ml resevoir built in. Which Im slightly excited about. But roots will be critical in that setup just the same

I find that plenty of dissolved oxygen drives the root crazy. I grew in a 4/4 rockwool and my stems are over an inch thick.

 

[OrganicGorilla]

1 word. Mycorrhizal.

 

[Jypsy Dog]

I grow in 100% coco using fabric pots and blumats. When I harvest the roots have grown throughout all of the coco. Prior to flowering I hand water while in veg. You don't need to water several times a day. You want to water just until runoff and then let the coco dry out. Not completely but to where the top couple inches are dry. If it takes a couple of days then it takes a couple of days. If you let the coco dry out the roots will search for water and grow. If you keep the coco soaking wet by watering a couple times a day the roots have no need to grow.
I let my clones or seeds grow a good set of roots in 4 x 4 pots then transplant into three gallon fabric pots of 100% coco that's been presoaked but isn't dripping wet. When you squeeze a handful of coco you shouldn't have water coming out of it like a sponge. I've had roots start poking through the fabric in a couple of days.

"Im trying to get a handle on treating coco coir like a hydroponic grow,"
You want to treat coco like coco. Best results come from allowing the coco to dry out somewhat between watering's or by using a drip type system that keeps it at a constant moisture level. That's why I use blumats. The coco stays damp but not soaking wet which is what you want with coco.

As Stated above... Make the roots do there job. If they HAVE to chase moisture, they have to grow roots to do it. Water by weight, not date. Or in your case hours.

 

[gg2]

11 lbs,coco coir..,20lb,Black Gold Organic Grow, Organic worm castings, 15 lbs. Natures odorless...2 cups- (1 cup) Earth Juice 100209817 Volcano Bat Guano 0-6-0, 5 lb., 3 cups perlite, .. This organic mix I uesd to repot all of my eight plants and 3 seedlings.. the 8 plants all are autos and 3 are 70 days old and 5 are 2 months old and 2 are weeks old.. I removed about 3-4 inches top soil and loosened

up soil in the pot as not to disturb the roots and added the home soil grow to fill the pots up to the top with. I made a dress up look..MY PLANTS ARE DOING JUST FANTASTIC.. I could tell after I watered and did cal-mag and big bud and alaska fish emulsion and grandmas molasses to top it all of and put my babies under the lights... I purchased a_ iPower 4" 6" 8" inch Inline Fan Carbon Air Filter Ducting Combo HPS Grow. I set the filter on the bedroom floor and put the fan on top, fits right in and plug it up and man oh man it looks like a grow big set up going on!! this thing works like nothing I have seen before. The stinky fish chit if u have used this,, oh my word,, horrible!!!! this fan n filter had it gone in less than 3 mins. plus keeps air blowing!! ! keeps my Florida bedroom in 9O* plus weather outside and 77-78% indoors.. JUST RIGHT!! really shocked me with the performance and size, but still a perfect size for a 12 x12 x7 room and plenty power to go around. The noise level is very low. This whole set up is my own grow jornaul. I had to just jump in and learn as much as I could 2 get going and still checking out everything I can and putting my own experience in landscaping and gardens most my life growing up n now in my ''goldenage''..lol.. welp.. happy growing my 420 peeps here to each their own happy beans

 

[gg2]

11 lbs,coco coir..,20lb,Black Gold Organic Grow, Organic worm castings, 15 lbs. Natures odorless...2 cups- (1 cup) Earth Juice 100209817 Volcano Bat Guano 0-6-0, 5 lb., 3 cups perlite, .. This organic mix I uesd to repot all of my eight plants and 3 seedlings.. the 8 plants all are autos and 3 are 70 days old and 5 are 2 months old and 2 are weeks old.. I removed about 3-4 inches top soil and loosened

up soil in the pot as not to disturb the roots and added the home soil grow to fill the pots up to the top with. I made a dress up look..MY PLANTS ARE DOING JUST FANTASTIC.. I could tell after I watered and did cal-mag and big bud and alaska fish emulsion and grandmas molasses to top it all of and put my babies under the lights... I purchased a_ iPower 4" 6" 8" inch Inline Fan Carbon Air Filter Ducting Combo HPS Grow. I set the filter on the bedroom floor and put the fan on top, fits right in and plug it up and man oh man it looks like a grow big set up going on!! this thing works like nothing I have seen before. The stinky fish chit if u have used this,, oh my word,, horrible!!!! this fan n filter had it gone in less than 3 mins. plus keeps air blowing!! ! keeps my Florida bedroom in 9O* plus weather outside and 77-78% indoors.. JUST RIGHT!! really shocked me with the performance and size, but still a perfect size for a 12 x12 x7 room and plenty power to go around. The noise level is very low. This whole set up is my own grow jornaul. I had to just jump in and learn as much as I could 2 get going and still checking out everything I can and putting my own experience in landscaping and gardens most my life growing up n now in my ''goldenage''..lol.. welp.. happy growing my 420 peeps here to each their own happy beans

I also experimented with I white widow in cooc coir only, planted right into the stuff and germinated 1cream in paper towel after soaking 24h... the coco coir was through the soil in 3 days and planted my seedlings in 4 days.. this stuff is AWESOME,, AWESOME..keep it watered and watch that stuff do the trick fast and healthy looking too..jus another 420 grow labtest for this gg2happybeans

 

[Cletus clem]

Air pruning for one. Dont transplant too often or soon. I go solo cup, to 5x5x6 modified square to my final potwhich is 2-3 gal depending. I sometimes flower in smart pots, tried airpots once, didnt have good luck but about to give them a second chance. My rule for solo cups and what i like to see in my middle pots is the need to water to runoff everyday else they get too dry. My custom pots. These still have the ring left from my soldering iron. I now use a step bit to drill them out a little bigger and get rid of that lip. The holes in the corners are there to trap roots and get them to grow out of the hole and air prune off.
Secondly, when i transplant, i continue the practice of root pruning via scalpel. In the solo cup, a couple quick scores on the sides and an x on the bottom is sufficient. For the squares, i make a large x on each side, one on the bottom between the feet of the pot, i also cut the feet off level as they are usually just a solid root mass. When making the incision, a sterile blade should be used and be careful not to go too deep. Youre not destroying the roots, just pruning a bit. When a root tip is pruned off, the plant sends 2 more out to replace it. Think of it like topping your canopy. When i transplant into my flowering pot, i give them a few days to a week to get comfy, then flip. A dense fiborous root system that fill the entire pot. No hourglass, just as dense in the middle as the top and bottom. As once said by the knights who say ni, "bring me a shrubbery"

 

[Huckster79]

I grow in 100% coco using fabric pots and blumats. When I harvest the roots have grown throughout all of the coco. Prior to flowering I hand water while in veg. You don't need to water several times a day. You want to water just until runoff and then let the coco dry out. Not completely but to where the top couple inches are dry. If it takes a couple of days then it takes a couple of days. If you let the coco dry out the roots will search for water and grow. If you keep the coco soaking wet by watering a couple times a day the roots have no need to grow.
I let my clones or seeds grow a good set of roots in 4 x 4 pots then transplant into three gallon fabric pots of 100% coco that's been presoaked but isn't dripping wet. When you squeeze a handful of coco you shouldn't have water coming out of it like a sponge. I've had roots start poking through the fabric in a couple of days.

"Im trying to get a handle on treating coco coir like a hydroponic grow,"
You want to treat coco like coco. Best results come from allowing the coco to dry out somewhat between watering's or by using a drip type system that keeps it at a constant moisture level. That's why I use blumats. The coco stays damp but not soaking wet which is what you want with coco.

Everything he said, yes.

I make my own pots, eother ising milk crates or laundry bins oor traditional platic pots with tons of 1" holes drilled all over, then i line it with weed block fabric like u put uunder mulch.. the rootball wrapped in that fabric really makes transplant easy, pull whole thing out and gently unfold the fabric flat again and you have a perfect almost totally undesturbed root mass to up pot

 

[Dr. Who]

"My method works." has been the theme of this threads answers...

Yet a study from a southern college has proven that the use of Kelp in all forms.
Increases root growth in speed and mass. Up to as much as 173%!

Use a good kelp extract. I don't care what the media is, it increases root development in all ways.

I use Kelp meal to build soils and use kelp extract in feeding.

 

[MickFoster]

The key to fast root growth is oxygen. I use a 50/50 coco/perlite mix and feed every day from the day the plant sprouts. Daily feeding in coco replenishes the nutes and pulls in fresh oxygen to the roots.

Roots at two weeks from sprout.

Plant at 4 weeks from sprout.

 

[boilingoil]

Might just be a slow rooting strain. Or you are transplanting to fast. My 9 liter pots are totally full of roots in less than 30 days and by the time they finish I'm only to able to recycle around 2 cups from the pots as the roots totally consume the pots enough that the roots are growing out of the surface of the coir.
This is what I get in 21 days of veg from rooted cuttings and their progression .

 

[John kush93]

Can roots be exposed to light, I have my setup, designed it myself , basically my plants are just constantly sat in water, and the water has no lid, to stop light, so when root really grows out of pot into water it will be exposed to light will that be ok

 

[MickFoster]

Can roots be exposed to light, I have my setup, designed it myself , basically my plants are just constantly sat in water, and the water has no lid, to stop light, so when root really grows out of pot into water it will be exposed to light will that be ok

No.

 

[John kush93]

So as a cheap and easy solution I could put aload of binliners over the top of the tray and tape them all together to cover it,would that work ??